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Settlement Glossary - make sure you know all these key terms for your exam!!


Site - the physical land on which a settlement is built
Situation - the settlement in relation to its surrounding area
Wet-point sites - the site of a settlement close to a water supply such as a spring line settlement on a chalk escarpment
Dry-point sites - the site of a settlement which avoids land prone to flooding such as a gravel mound or the valley side
Burgess Model - a concentric model of urban land use
Inner city - the urban zone outside of the CBD in MEDCs
Self-help schemes - in LEDCs people who live in shanty towns often improve their homes by building them


Bridging points - a settlement located where a river is forded pr bridged
Route focus - where communications focus i.e. roads and railways converge
Sphere of Influence (Catchment area) - the area that a school, shop or settlement serves
Convenience goods - goods which are cheap and bought frequently e.g. papers, food
Suburbs - a mainly residential area outside of the inner city in MEDCs
Rural-urban fringe - on the outskirts of an urban area beyond the suburbs where there is a mixture or rural land uses and urban land uses



Comparison goods - goods which are expensive and bought less frequently e.g. furniture
Commuter or dormitory villages - villages on the outskirts of a town or city
Millionaire cities - cities with over 1 million people where people live but travel to work in the city
Megacities - cities with over 5 million people
Urbanisation - the increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas
Counter-urbanisation - the decrease in the proportion of people living in urban areas (moving from urban to rural areas)

informal sector - in LEDCs many people work in the informal sector as shoeshine boys, servants
Urban land uses - the use of land in towns and cities
Zones - areas of land with similar uses
Central Business district (CBD) - the heart of a city where the financial and business interests are
Self-help schemes - in LEDCs people who live in shanty towns often improve their homes by building them
Urban sprawl - the uncontrolled spreading of urban areas into the countryside